As follower’s of our blog know, we enjoy a Luis Escobar event. Well, I should say that I enjoy them and Jesse comes along for the ride much of the time. This event was a bit different than the others we have done; first off this was the inaugural Back on the Ranch event. The other All we do is Run events often have a distance that you sign up for and this was different in that it was a looped course that you did as many times as you wanted to in the time allotted. I signed up for 12 hours and I signed Jesse up for the 6 hours. The loop was a little over one mile and the directions switched every four hours. It sounds like it would get boring but it didn’t since it had some broken pavement, some hills, some sand and some dirt road. Also you had the opportunity to run with different people each loop depending on pace. I had the chance to have some fun conversations with people and you ran by your car and main camp every loop.
Jesse and I drove from Utah to Vegas on Thursday since Aunt Debbie was kind enough to let us crash with her for one night. We can do the drive in one long push but then we would have gotten to the ranch in the dark. This event is held on the same ranch as Born to Run, just on the other side. There are no lights or clear roads so we wanted to make sure we arrived during daylight hours. Debbie of course showed us a wonderful time as usual. She knows all the best places to go for cheap drinks and food. We had a great time with her and got up early the next day to head to CA. She had to go to work anyway so this worked out really well for all of us. The drive from Vegas to Los Olivos is not very exciting. We were in my new Crosstrek (this trip was part of the reason I bought it) and at least had fun playing with the map and podcast app using CarPlay. The route we took was a bit meandering since we didn’t want to drive through LA for obvious reasons and were we were headed was a bit further north anyway. We took yet another different route on the way home since we got stopped because of a long train in middle of nowhere CA.
One of the things we like to do is stop at Jesse’s former place of employment, El Rancho in Solvang, CA to buy snacks and drinks for our overnight camping adventure. We did this before Born to Run and it worked really well so we stopped again and grabbed food for dinner, breakfast and snacks while running. We arrived at the ranch and had to drive down some exciting “roads” to get to main camp. This guy’s ranch is very large, about 8,000 acres and full of random turn offs and things. We followed along on the route provided in the email from the race director. We eventually found our way and saw some of the runners that had started the day before; there was a 24 and 48 hour option also. We found a place to park and set up our spot. My car thankfully lived up to the expectations I had for it and we were able to make a pretty comfortable bed in the back of it.
The running for us did not start until the next morning so we walked around a bit and got our bibs. The wonderful ladies from Marvelous Mud were set up. They make awesome mugs and other fun things but what is so generous of them is that they make all the amulets for the finishers. We bought some mugs and Jesse decided to partake in the festivities by joining the Beer Mile. For those of you that don’t know, the beer mile consists of drinking a 12 ounce beer (or other beverage if under 21) and then running a quarter of a mile. Then drink another beverage and run another quarter and then do it one more time. So in the span of a mile you have had 4 beers. I was put in charge of timing and photos since I did not think this was the event for me. It was fun to watch and Jesse seemed to have fun, although he might not have felt that great at the end. After watching people finish and taking some pictures Jesse decided some food in his stomach might be a good idea so we sat and enjoyed our dinner while watching the 48 hour runners go by. After it got dark there was some music on the makeshift stage. Oftentimes it is just an easy up on a flatbed trailer with some lights and a speaker or two. There was a guy singing and playing guitar. We sat and listened for a while and then headed to bed.
The next day was an early morning. Sleeping the back of the car was not too bad, Jesse was able to lay all the way down when he put his feet between the front seats. It was warm, off the ground and away from the bugs. I ate some snacks and walked over to the start line with Jesse. We began running after the shotgun start and got our first look at the course that we would spend most of the day running on. Jesse did amazing and took off at his usual faster than me pace. I saw him a bunch of times as we did loop after loop. It started with a small incline with lots of sand. The views of the mountains were lovely and there were halloween decorations in trees along the marked route. I did almost all my running in the daylight hours but I imagine seeing those skeletons hanging from trees at 2am would be a bit scary. After four hours the direction changed so now there was more downhill running. I ran with various people including the Running Jester and Benita from Hawaii. It was fun hearing people’s stories while in this beautiful setting. I even saw a real live tarantula in its natural habitat. I also learned that all those holes in the ground probably housed the tarantulas so I was even more grateful to be off the ground! The six hour came to an end and Jesse was done after running 25 miles! I was so proud of him, he did awesome. All that training in the Utah mountains paid off. Luis gathered all the six hour finishers to give them their amulets. This was the first ever back on the ranch so there were only about 60 people there so it was very intimate. Luis spoke about each person as Tracy gave them their finishers amulet.
After that I still had 6 more hours to go. I was hoping to get in a 50k (31 miles). It was warm out but not too hot and I passed the main aid station often where I enjoyed snacks and camaraderie. I also saw Jesse as I went around and around. My second to last loop I had a bit of a meltdown and the previously mentioned Benita calmed me down. I started hearing coyotes in the distance and I had no means of protecting myself. I kept thinking a whole pack of them would come and overtake so so I started to cry a bit and loudly saying “I’m human don’t eat me” over and over. I caught up to Benita and she pointed out that I would not be too appetizing for a coyote and they are probably much further away than I thought they were. I finished the loop with her and knew I just had one more to go to make my goal. I stopped at the car and said hello to Jesse and grabbed a sweatshirt and my mace (just in case). It was getting darker and cooler so I was happy to be almost done. I did my last loop and came through the arch. I had made my goal and I think it was probably faster than my last 50k but I will never know for sure. I had a great time and the wonderful ladies at the aid station had a grilled cheese with avocado waiting for me. I sat by the fire and listed to the music while eating my sandwich. I did manage to get two pretty big blisters; one on the outside of my left foot near the heel and one under my first two toes on the ball of my foot. Unfortunately the latter popped while I was on my last loop and it was a bit uncomfortable. I cleaned off my feet and put on some warm clothes then headed back to the fire to enjoy the band. It was an interesting one, the guys are probably used to playing for a much larger crowd than the 20 or so people that were there to listen. They played an eclectic mix of music and described themselves as mexican, pirate music. I cannot for the life of me remember their name but they were fun to listen to and sing along with. Luis also presented all the 12 hour runners and Tracy gave us our amulets. When I went up to get mine I saw something crawling on the ground and jumped. It was not a tarantula but a hideous potato bug/Jerusalem cricket thing. It was awful!! Again I was thrilled to be sleeping off the ground. And of course since this event is filled with the spirit of Born to Run they were passing around a very big bottle of Jack Daniels and everyone took a swig (my mother would have fainted if she saw us doing that!). We sat their for quite a while but I was cold and tired and my legs were feeling pretty beat up so we headed to bed.
Again we slept really well in the car and woke up with the sun. There was coffee and breakfast and we had the chance to see Luis and Tracy present the amulets to the 24 and 48 hour finishers and the belt buckles to those that went 100 miles and beyond. Luis has know a lot of these people for a really long time. It was wonderful hearing his stories about each of them. One of the 24 hour guys came all the way from Japan for the event! Jesse and I ended up leaving later than we wanted but it was worth it to give every runner a round of applause and to hear a bit about how Luis knew them and their accomplishments. It was a wonderful way to end our time at the ranch.
We piled everything into the car, which was now rather dirty and didn’t smell very good, and headed out. Once on the road we decided we needed to make one more stop. Jesse had been longing to see the ocean and touch the sand again. We have been in Utah for several months and he needed some beach time. Santa Barbara was a perfect place to stop, it is right off the highway, it is on the way to Vegas and it has a really big beach. We walked up and down a little and watched the waves. It was just what Jesse needed and he was so happy to be there. It felt good to stretch our legs a bit also. Then we climbed back in the car and headed to Vegas.
Debbie was awesome again and let our sweaty, smelly, dirty selves come to her house, get cleaned up and spend the night. Jesse drove this time since my legs were not feeling so great and driving stick shift would have been difficult. We arrived at Debbie’s after a lovely drive and took a nice warm shower. Since it was Sunday we headed to a bar or two and watched some football and met some of Debbie’s friends. It was a lot of fun but we were tired and Debbie had to work in the morning so we made it an early-ish night. The next morning we loaded up the car again and headed home. We had to go pick up MoeJoe from the kennel and Jesse had to work that evening. MoeJoe was so good in the car and in his harness (his fat butt does not fit in his carrier) that Jesse and I remarked we should take him more places.
This was another amazing event that I hope to do next year if Luis decides to hold it again. The format was fun and you could really make it what you wanted it to be. Can’t wait to do this again but first is a trip to CA for my birthday and again in May for Born to Run!!
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